Re: 'Woke foundations use dollars acquired through capitalism to under mine free market principles' [Village News, Graber letter, 5/27/21]

Here are a few of the shortcomings of the subject editorial.

Graber first questions whether corporations should donate to charities at all and specifically questions funding for social justice efforts. He asks, rhetorically, “Have the billions of dollars spent on it [social justice reform] resulted in greater equity and quality of life for those it purports to help?” You’re supposed to say “no.” This does beg these questions: If America’s social justice system is so great, why are people and corporations so eager to donate funds to change it? Why are there thousands of people across the country taking to the streets in protest to demand social justice change?

Graber subscribes to the current, and long standing, business school precept that a business’s first and only purpose is to maximize stockholders’ return on investment. On that basis, Bradley is correct: there is no place in corporations for philanthropy, that is, giving with no expectation of receiving something in return. This begs another question: Should maximizing profit be a business’s only objective?

He goes on to provide his definition of “wokeness” as a philanthropy that looks through a lens that judges people by their gender and ethnicity. This is 100% backwards. The goal of wokeness is to get people to stop looking at and treating people of color or other gender differently.

Graber also is under the false impression that America’s economy has long been a free market capitalism. “A free market is one where voluntary exchange and the laws of supply and demand provide the sole basis for the economic system, without government intervention.” But to understand that definition, you need to know what is meant by “voluntary exchange.” It is “a transaction where parties trade goods or services freely, with no coercive or restrictive force involved.”

Based on those definitions, one can see that, while we have full blown capitalism, we do not have a free market and have not for decades. The job market may be the most un-free of all. Big Business acts effectively as a monopoly. It sets all the terms for hiring. We, as job seekers, have only two choices: take it or leave it.

Graber says that since 1977, about 2 billion people have been lifted out of starvation and poverty, which he claims is due to the rise of free markets. He goes on to say: “Research substantiates this, showing that the more economically free a country is, the greater the standard of living.”

So our exceptional “free market economy” should make us a shoo-in for first place in standard of living, shouldn’t it? Turns out we’re 15th. Finland is in first place and the other Scandinavian countries placed ahead of us as well. What those countries have in common is free health care for all. Sounds like adding some socialism to a capitalist economy is a real living standards booster. (World Population Review Standard Of Living By Country 2021)

John H. Terrell